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Tuesday, July 29, 2008

One day at a time

Getting back to my (blog) roots, I haven't been watching a lot of movies lately, but I have been doing my part to catch up on some TV offerings via Netflix and Hulu.com. TV on the computer is so convenient. You can stop and start and view any time you want. Love it!

So first I watched a British mini-series called State of Play, starring lots of people you'll recognize, notably Bill Nighy, and lots of people you won't, most of whom are, for some reason, Scottish. It was a twisty, kind of gritty, vaguely sexy mystery, the heroes of which were newspaper reporters acting like Sherlock Holmes. It involved Parliament, affairs, assassins, misconceptions, and stopping the presses (literally). In short, it was good, though the resolution happened a little too quickly for my taste. But that's a minor quibble, really. So, I recommend it, if you're feeling...Brit-y.

I also watched the first season of Burn Notice. I caught the first two episodes way back when came out on USA, but then it faded away and I lost contact. Then I heard the show had been picked up for a second season and had been getting a fair amount of buzz for a basic cable offering and I got intrigued. I had it listed on Netflix but then found the whole season on Hulu, so we were off to the races. Michael Westin is a spy who has been "burned," or blacklisted, and he's living in Miami trying to figure out what happened. In the meantime, he and an ex and an old friend help people with problems that might need his particular skills (knowledge about how to con people and an affinity for guns) while he engages in all sorts of shenanigans to solve his own mystery. I'm interested in this show for many reasons, not the least of which is that the main character appears at turns attractive, like a main character should be, and very strange-looking, like his face is squashed or something. It's fascinating to see which Michael turns up in any given scene. (Reminds me of the husband's reaction to the actress who plays Meredith Grey on Grey's anatomy: "Okay-looking, okay-looking, ugliest woman you've ever seen, okay-looking, ugly again" etc., etc., etc. He really doesn't like her!) Oh, and Toby from The West Wing made an appearance in the first season, so that was a bonus.

Next up in my Netflix queue is the first season of Mad Men which I missed completely the first time around (even when we had cable, we didn't have that channel. Fascist Comcast!). I've recently realized one of the stars also had a recurring role (two episodes but the whole series is like 12 so that's recurrent enough for me) on Firefly, one of my all-time favorite series AND another main character is also from The West Wing, another bonus (that wasn't a recent realization, by the way. I'm not THAT behind!).

We'll see where the TV review leads me next. I'll be sure to tell you, whether you want to know or not!